ANDREW Flintoff will not start "picking and choosing" his matches to protect himself from injury as he embarks on the most hectic schedule of his career.

Such is the 31-year-old all-rounder’s importance to England, it would be tempting for the backroom staff to wrap him in cotton wool to protect him from any harm until the first Ashes Test starts in Cardiff on July 8.

He is due to return from the latest of his injuries, a hip strain, this Friday in England’s third one-day international against West Indies at the Kensington Oval having been sidelined for a month since the third Test in Antigua.

Another similar injury later this summer would be a major setback to England’s hopes of emulating their achievement in 2005 by reclaiming the Ashes, particularly against an Australian team who have just recorded a significant series win in South Africa.

But Flintoff is reluctant to rest despite a tough schedule which includes two weeks playing in the Indian Premier League in South Africa, a home Test and one-day series against West Indies and the Twenty20 World Cup before the Ashes.

"I’m just going to play when I’m asked to play," he said.

"These four weeks I’ve had now when I’ve been able to do my fitness work and have a bit of a rest will probably serve me well for what’s coming up this year because it’s a busy schedule. I will speak to the medical staff, but I’m just raring to get going now."

Since the 2005 Ashes series, when Flintoff was named man of the series, he has been restricted to 22 out of 45 Tests England have played and only 45 of 82 one-day internationals through various injuries.

Since 2005 he has had three operations on his left ankle, had a side strain and now the latest hip problem, which forced him home for intensive treatment for a week before he returned to the Caribbean for the start of the one-day series.

He is confident, though, his body can cope with the stresses and strains of this summer, which also precedes the Champions Trophy tournament in South Africa followed by a Test and one-day series in the same country.

"My last injury was a muscle tear which is something which just heals," he explained. "There was never any worry about the long-term effects or the prospect of an operation or anything like that, it was just something that was going to heal.

"My body is fine, but there is a concern that when I come back from not playing is when I’m at my most vulnerable," he conceded.

"That’s when things like my side strain happens and things like that so I may have to look at the management of my bowling. I may have to bowl a bit more in practice and always keep ticking over rather than having those breaks and coming back straight into it.

"I think everyone gets ahead of themselves a little bit. There is the Ashes later in the year and everyone is looking at that, but we’ve got a lot to do before then.

"Even on this trip there is a bit to do with three one-dayers left and the series at 1-1 so we need to win this, get on some winning role and then we’ve got the West Indies again when we get back home. I’m not going to be picking and choosing, I just want to play every game I can."

Flintoff’s return on Friday will boost England’s prospects of improving but he will go into a side low in confidence having won just one match all winter - and that when West Indies took bad light in the opening one-day international believing they were ahead on the Duckworth Lewis tables.

"I don’t think we’re far off being a good one-day side," he insisted. "The big thing is consistency but I don’t know how you work on that, I think that comes through confidence.

"We’ve beaten everyone in the world over different times but never really strung it together over a period of time. If you look at the bowlers we have, Stuart Broad who has come on massively in one-day cricket and we have Jimmy Anderson and Steve Harmison is bowling well too.

"We do need to start posting big scores with the batting, though, because the days of scoring 250 and feeling safe are gone now. Sides are confident off chasing down 300 plus and we have to be confident of doing that like the Indians do."

England will train at the Kensington Oval tomorrow when they will begin finalising their side and decide who will drop out to accommodate Flintoff’s return with either Harmison or off-spinner Gareth Batty likely to make way.